


2.06 - An Unperfect Storm

by larenoz



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: 2.06, Malex, Malexa, Meta, Milexa, Multi, Other, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, airstream scene, miluca
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-27 21:00:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30128769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/larenoz/pseuds/larenoz
Summary: Episode 2.06 - Sex and Candy brought to the boiling point a number of issues that had become increasingly visible in the Roswell, New Mexico fandom. These included racism, homophobia, biphobia, agency (around characters sexuality and disability), misogyny, and purity politics. These and other other issues are discussed in context of how they impacted on the reception of this episode and informed the discussion around it.
Relationships: Maria DeLuca/Michael Guerin, Maria DeLuca/Michael Guerin/Alex Manes, Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Comments: 44
Kudos: 17





	2.06 - An Unperfect Storm

**Intro**

This post will look at episode 2x06 - “Sex and Candy” and the RNM fandoms reaction to the episode. I’ll then look at the issues raised during the fandoms pre- and post-airing meltdown and the factors that contributed to that meltdown. 

It will be part meta, part history, part my thoughts. 

**Contents**

  * Terminology
  * Caveat about Triggering
  * What Actually Happened?
  * Sex vs Initimacy
  * Consent
    * Enthusiastic vs Willing Consent
    * Regret Does Not Equal Non-Consent
    * Differing Standards of Consent for Non-Heteronormative Relationships
    * Trauma Negates Capability of Consent
  * Character Agency
  * Attitudes Towards and About Bisexuality
  * Attitudes Towards and About Homosexuality
  * Fandom Racism and RNM
    * Predatorship
    * Misogynoir
  * Ethical Non-Monogamy
  * Malex vs Milcua vs Candy



**Terminology**

Throughout the discussion I’m going to use the term “threesome” to describe the interaction between Maria, Alex and Michael in the Airstream. I believe the lack of negotiation, and once only occurrence of them being together doesn’t rise to the [ definition of ethical non-monogymy ](https://www.prevention.com/life/a27890891/polyamorous-relationship/) in that while it was consensual, it wasn’t the start of, or part of an ongoing, negotiated relationship. And “threeway” just sounds a bit tacky and judgemental for an event that I believe held emotional significance for all the participants. For more discussion on the [ types of ethical non-monogamy ](https://daughterofelros.tumblr.com/post/615386631236714496/im-seeing-a-fair-bit-of-anger-on-my-dash-today).

**Caveat about Triggering**

I go into this discussion acknowledging that people were triggered by some aspect of the episode, specifically around the “threesome” scene in Michael’s AirStream after they escape from the twins farm. I also acknowledge that just because someone was triggered by the episode, or scene, it doesn’t automatically mean that the episode or scene was inherently triggering or bad. Anything can be a trigger. Triggers are highly individual. My questioning of reactions to the scene should not be taken as invalidating those who were triggered by the episode. 

**What Actually Happened?**

Several hours prior to the airing of this episode, it was leaked online. The scene’s sound editing created confusion for some fans. This involved one very important piece of dialogue being somewhat difficult to understand. That piece of dialogue was critical, it completely changed the context of the scene. 

This was exacerbated by a poorly composed transcript based on the leaked episode which included an incorrect version of the dialogue. This incorrect transcript was widely shared before the official airing of the episode.

Alex says: “I don’t really want to leave”, followed by “Maria...I don’t want to leave.”

The incorrect transcript was especially influential in how the episode was received. Firstly, after reading the transcript, many fans didn’t even bother watching the episode. They based their reactions on a combination of the incorrect transcript, selected screenshots and posts made by people who’d watched the leaked video.

Secondly, for those who had read the incorrect transcript and chosen to watch it, it’s highly unlikely that their viewing wasn’t coloured by the incorrect dialogue in the transcript.

This is important because the transcript left out the “don’t” in Alexs’ dialogue which then made it appear that all actions after this involved a level of coercion on the part of Michael and Maria (with Maria in particular being a target of fan ire, for reasons which will be discussed in detail later). 

A post-2x06 episode interview with actress Heather Hemmens also leaked early, colouring perception of the story by some fans, (especially those looking for justification to further their anti-Maria agenda), who transposed the motivations of the actress onto her character.

For a number of fans, this scene in particular, was seen as homophobic, biphobic, and/or featuring questionable consent. As a result, this particular story is considered triggering for a number of fans. I would argue that there was indeed homophobia and biphobia related to the scene, but mainly in some of the arguments and reactions of those who didn’t like what happened in the scene, not within the scene itself.

This episode occurred in the context of high tension between members of the Miluca ship group, the Malex ship group, and stans of Michael Guerin, Alex Manes and/or Maria DeLuca. There was also tension from some OG Roswell fans who were unhappy that the original Maria/Michael ship (Candy) had been replaced by Malex (Michael/Alex) and Miluca (Michael/Maria). There were members who felt that the hostility towards the character Maria DeLuca was based on either anti-Black racism, misogyny, or both ([ misogynoir ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misogynoir)).

The fact that the scene featured three characters in a sexual encounter was felt to be confronting for some members of the fandom, including from queer fans. This element resulted in the expression of a number of homophobic and biphobic comments from fans. 

The resulting fallout was rapid and dramatic. Within hours of the airing of the episode, a number of people, including some Big Name Fans had left the fandom completely. This included the deletion of a number of Tumblr blogs and the erasure of fics from repositories such as Archive of Our Own. Over the following weeks, discourse between the many groups of fans became increasingly vitriolic and examples of poor behaviour proliferated - incorrect and outright misleading tagging of posts and fics (especially related to non-con), sending links to untagged non-con and anti-fics, writing anti-fics and posts without watching the episode and much, much worse.

As a result more fans left the fandom or severely limited who they interacted with.

Now, almost exactly a year after the events in question, the fandom remains reduced and splintered. 

**Sex vs Intimacy**

Early in Ep 2.06, Alex and Maria are in her truck, driving towards the bootmakers house. They have a conversation about how they feel about each other and their relationships with Michael. Alex opens up about a number of issues, including his relationship to physical intimacy. This [ wonderful meta ](https://ober-affen-geil.tumblr.com/post/616027879896121344/never-in-my-life-did-i-think-that-i-an-asexual) examines in depth about how Alex has been punished for loving in the wrong way - both in terms of self-love and physical, sexual love. As Alex himself says:

_“I know what I’m supposed to say. I just - I wish that I felt it. No one taught me to love myself actually, just the opposite. You know, kissing you in that closet was the first time in my life that I… that I enjoyed touching someone.”_

Source: [ darlingnotso ](https://darlingnotso.tumblr.com/post/616226477313327104)

It’s important to remember this conversation, (especially [ how Alex relates to touch ](https://chasingshhadows.tumblr.com/post/185914160384/malex-love-languages)) in relation to the scene that occurs later, because while the very end of the scene ends in a sexual encounter involving the three of them, the vast majority of the scene is actually about intimacy, not sex. 

I think part of the reaction from many people in that scene stemmed from confusing the two. In the truck scene and the visuals we see in the airstream scene, it’s mostly about taking comfort from physical touch and emotional connection, [ not just about sex ](https://im-the-punk-who.tumblr.com/post/639674339750445056/im-gonna-talk-positively-about-the) (although that plays a legitimate part as well). In fact, that Alex is prepared to act on his sexuality in front of Maria, (when he’s been [ so emphatic about not acting on his sexuality in public ](https://ober-affen-geil.tumblr.com/post/616280865221279744/i-know-i-keep-saying-this-but-for-those-of-you-who) or people seeing him in a sexual environment (Isobel in 1.03)), speaks volumes about how much he trusts and loves Maria. Again, an act of intimacy, not sexuality.

And that the scene is about queer intitimacy, not just queer sexuality is so, so refreshing and something that we don’t see enough.This [ great meta touches on this ](https://daughterofelros.tumblr.com/post/616220306137350144/why-i-loved-the-airstream-scene) (and other issues about the scene).

I think that what is going on here is a cultural perspective where people are so used to only seeing intimacy as a forerunner to sex, that they are unable to parse it in any other way. That is: intimacy automatically equals a sexual situation. Which in turn leads to the issue of the [ threesome somehow cancelling Alex’s “gay card” ](https://fandomwithjoy.tumblr.com/post/616110892056297472/my-take) because that scene obviously means he had sex with Maria. (Narrator voice: Alex probably didn’t have sex with Maria, but even if he did, so what?)

And I also think that issues of intimacy must also be viewed through the impact of race. I think fans are acculturated to seeing Black women depicted as objects of sexual desire but are much more confronted by depictions of Black women as the objects of love and intimacy, especially in an interacial relationship. 

**Consent**

One of, if not the major issue raised about the Air Steam scene is the issue of consent. Consent has been large element of the show and it’s been discussed a lot - [meta](https://ober-affen-geil.tumblr.com/post/185988286351/chasingshhadows-ober-affen-geil-so-i-was), [meta](https://ober-affen-geil.tumblr.com/post/622770271932301312/i-like-your-meta-abt-consent-in-rnm-but-i-wonder), [meta](https://ober-affen-geil.tumblr.com/post/184426083116/i-have-many-things-i-want-to-talk-about-in-regards), [meta](https://ober-affen-geil.tumblr.com/post/185000646586/i-have-talked-about-how-roswell-handles-consent), [meta](https://ober-affen-geil.tumblr.com/post/184168214366/alrighty-i-want-to-talk-about-something-this-show) **,** and [meta](https://ober-affen-geil.tumblr.com/post/188692083811/i-said-i-was-gonna-go-off-on-it-so-here-we-go-cw). Underlying most of these analyses is the framework that consent is an ongoing process - a series of verbal and non-verbal conversations. 

This meta gives [ a detailed breakdown of consent in 2.06 ](https://ober-affen-geil.tumblr.com/post/637860822119596032/i-didnt-actually-intend-to-write-this-meta-but).I would really recommend reading it before proceeding. I think it outlines in great detail how consent was given and portrayed in the scene and how it relates to consent within the wider context of the issue in the show.

**Enthusiastic vs Willing Consent**

The phrase “enthusiastic consent” is used more than once in the show, including by gay character, Forrest Long when talking to Alex. It’s one that we’ve all heard but it’s a very narrow definition and one that [ presents its own set of problems ](https://prismaticentanglements.com/2011/05/17/willing-consent/). 

A concept that I think helps to frame the discussion of consent in relation to 2.06 is that of [ Willing consent ](https://queeranarchism.tumblr.com/post/633827063546134528/keplercryptids-keplercryptids-ive-been-on-hold). This is a concept most associated with the asexual community where an asexual person who has no personal desire for sex may consent to sex with a partner. 

A lot of the discussion around enthusiastic consent hits me as being great for the extroverts and verbal communicators and confident people but almost shaming for the introverts, self-conscious and non-verbal communicators. It’s yet another binary - enthusiastic or nothing - that artificially limits people’s ability to communicate. And we all know where one Alex Manes fits when it comes to communication. Verbal communication, not his thing.

I don’t think any of the people involved in the Airstream scene give enthusiastic consent, but I do think they all give willing consent. They aren’t sure what’s going to happen or what the outcome will be but they are all willing to participate and see where it goes. Minimising or gatekeeping their level of consent, especially for Alex who seems to be a preferred target for having his agency minimised.

**Regret Does Not Equal Non-Consent**

I think the morning after scene with Michael and Alex shows that on some level, Alex regrets what happened. I think he sees it as definitive proof that things are over between him and Michael at a minimum. But regret, does not equal non-consent. 

And I think seeing regret, for whatever reason in these circumstances is important because it allows us to see the characters as real people but to also model that sometimes we make choices that we later realise would we make differently if presented with those same circumstances again. 

**Differing Standards of Consent for Non-Heteronormative Relationships**

One of the things that seems to get little discussion or questioning in terms of the threesome is so many people grounding the whole discussion in the idea that a threesome is "controversial". And that frankly, people are putting higher standards on that relationship type than they've applied to the rest of the ships in the show. [ Liz or Max ](https://ober-affen-geil.tumblr.com/post/184168214366/alrighty-i-want-to-talk-about-something-this-show) or Kyle or Jenna or even [ Michael and Alex ](https://ober-affen-geil.tumblr.com/post/185988286351/chasingshhadows-ober-affen-geil-so-i-was) (in the 1.06 flashback) having casual sex is ok, but if three people do it, it’s suddenly the end of the world? And while I don’t think the consent in the threesome scene is as verbal as the consent in other scenes, it uses many of the same non-verbal consent markers as used in other scenes. 

Multiple people have written meta about how awesome the non-verbal consent and non-verbal communications (especially Alex, ironically) is in the show, but now even after Alex says TWICE that he wants to stay, and Michael physically pulls back and asks "What are we doing here", and frankly, Alex looks like he's going to fuck Michael's brains out, that still isn't considered clear enough consent for some members of the fandom. 

**Trauma Negates Capability of Consent**

In terms of consent, the issue of trauma impacting the ability to give consent was the centre of much debate about the episode. It’s a legitimate question to ask but I think one which ignores the context of how trauma (and injury in general) is treated within the show. Namely, that it completely ignores physical and mental trauma on a regular basis. Michael got hit in the head with an axe. He wouldn’t be traumatised, he’d be dead. Alex got stabbed in the chest (with a stiletto so he probably had a punctured lung) and Maria got chased around an isolated corn field by an axe-wielding maniac. So for the purposes of this discussion, I’m going to suspend disbelief for a moment.

But do any of these events negate the ability of the people involved to consent? Especially in a show where people seem to lurch from one disaster or traumatic event to the next. If being traumatised meant people couldn’t consent to sex, then no one in RNM should be having sex. And at what point does using trauma to negate ability to consent become a denial of a characters agency?

And in terms of this scene, for the most part the issue of trauma and the ability to consent only seems to be applied to Alex, as part of the ongoing need to infantilize him in order to make any choices he makes that certain fans don’t like, invalid. There seems to be little to no discussion about how trauma might be impacting either Michael or Maria. Also in Alexs’ case, we know he had PTSD from before the events of 2.06, so does this trauma impact on his ability to make decisions? If yes, who gets to make decisions for Alex? 

Even worse, while Alexs’ trauma is used to absolve him of “poor” (read “decisions some fans don’t like/agree with) decisions, the same concession is not given to Maria. In fact, there’s probably a little bit of ableism here as well that privileges visible trauma (physical injury) over invisible trauma (mental distress or injury). And Michael just appears to be forgotten about completely (because for some the only important people in the scene are Alex and Maria - the scene providing them fodder for their pro-Alex, anti-Maria agenda).

Or to take another perspective, rather than the trauma they have suffered impairing their ability to consent, has it rather lowered their inhibitions enough to actually be honest with each other for once?? Why is the scene not interpreted as classic comfort/we survived sex or comfort through physical intimacy, that is a trope in itself? Because some people don’t want it to be acceptable in any way.

**Character Agency**

Linked to the overall discussion of consent is that of character [ agency ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency_\(sociology\)).By calling into question the ability of a character to make choices, you are in danger of limiting or undermining their agency. The character of Alex seems to be the one who suffers most from having his agency undermined by some fans, whether it be related to his disability, or his sexuality. Both of these facets of his character were used in the wake of 2.06 by certain parts of the fandom to undermine his agency. Some fans used his amputation as evidence that he was “trapped” in the airstream with no way to escape. Others used his intimacy with Maria in the scene to call his sexuality into question (ignoring the nuance required in any discussion around sexuality), and yet others used his physical injury (stab wound) as evidence of trauma which minimised or negated his ability to consent to what happened in the Airstream with Michael and Maria.

The erasing of Alex’s agency was occurring before 2.06. But with this episode, the tendency of certain sections of the fandom to woobify Alex and reduce him to a highly infantilised level of helplessness reached a peak.

**Attitudes Towards and About Bisexuality**

Perhaps the best way to start talking about fandom attitudes to bisexuality is to contrast the treatment of two bi characters in this episode. Isobel has a "bi awakening" while at Planet 7. One minute she's dancing and making some pretty risque suggestions to Kyle Valenti, the next minute she's hooking up with hot bartender Blair. Fandom on the whole greeted this with cheers and praise, of it being "great representation", of female sexual empowerment, of exploring her sexuality and not being confined by the expected roles of society. 

Contrast this with the reaction that Michael (doing a similar thing throughout the two seasons of the show, and in this episode) receives. His behaviour and relationships are [ constantly being gatekept and evaluated ](https://chasingshhadows.tumblr.com/post/184135782169/i-probably-shouldnt-jump-in-on-this-but-its) (except, by some co-incidence when he's in a mlm relationship, then it's endless praise for "great representation"). It's especially ironic that so many of these critical evaluations of Michael's bi-ness rely on inherently biphobic takes.

Michael was great [ bi representation ](https://darlingnotso.tumblr.com/post/616469963256004608) while he was hooking up with Alex, but as soon as he was in a relationship with Maria, he was suddenly bad representation because he was now in a "het" relationship. Which is just straight up biphobia - [ Miluca is a queer ship ](https://daughterofelros.tumblr.com/post/645374421725511680/i-saw-this-post-about-how-miluca-is-a-queer-ship) and [ ignores how bi men experience relationships with women ](https://im-the-punk-who.tumblr.com/post/645408484684431360/i-saw-this-post-about-how-miluca-is-a-queer-ship). Some of this was fuelled by people just being upset they weren't getting Malex, but some of hit was definitely of the "it's only really queer if it's same gender" standard bi-phobia. And as soon as he was shown to be in two successive monogamous relationships, he's suddenly bad rep because this was obviously stereotyping bi people as being promiscuous (ignoring all of the straight people who were doing exactly the same thing in the show). And when he was then in a threesome, he was bad rep again because bi people aren't only good bi when they are monogamous and not hooking up, or something like that. 

The fact so many diametrically opposite arguments were used to discuss how Michael was “bad bisexual representation” shows just how much bi people, especially bi men have their sexuality policed, both by the queer and straight communities. Something was always wrong with how Michael chose to express his sexuality, rather than it being seen as Michael fully living his experience as a bi man.

The fandom likes to pride itself on it’s queer friendliness but there seem to be a lot of gatekeeping going on about how that queerness gets to be expressed and even how qualifies as queer. 

**Attitudes Towards and About Homosexuality**

Alex and Maria’s conversation in the car on the way to the farm is often overshadowed by what comes later in the episode. 

However, some in the fandom interpreted both the conversation and the threesome as somehow calling Alexs’ sexuality into question or invalidating his gayness. To me this ignores the nuance that surrounds sexual experience and identification. It also plays into some fairly harmful stereotypes such as [ Gold Star Gay ](https://medium.com/@mayastrong/do-i-get-a-gold-star-too-b8489c6a1723) and ignores the very different roads and experiences people have when finding out how they really are. And it also has more than a touch of biphobia as well. It’s [ queer gatekeeping at its worst ](https://darlingnotso.tumblr.com/post/638247432655929344), ignoring and minimising the experiences of the people who wrote it and the experiences of real gay men who watched it and related to it.

And it also has more than a touch of biphobia as well.

_“Every time I was with a women, I was trying to disappear.”_ Some have interpreted this as Alex “disassociating” when with a women but I think the simpler explanation is that being with a girl/woman was a way to mask his gayness and to make himself disappear into the background to avoid harassment and violence (he almost immediately speaks about his father destroying anything Alex loves). 

For more on this, I recommend reading this meta - [ Alex Manes is not a Gold Star Gay ](https://darlingnotso.tumblr.com/post/638247432655929344).

**Fandom Racism and RNM**

Fandom [ doesn’t like to talk about racism ](https://remindmeofthe.tumblr.com/post/640891518748688384/some-people-seem-to-think-that-my-posts-about) . Every fandom has elements of racism, whether overt or not, subconsious or conscious enough so that there are [ identifiable trends and tropes ](https://larenoz.tumblr.com/post/644632286839685120/its-kinda-hard-to-believe-that-its-not-a-race) . It’s always worse in fandoms with Black characters. It’s not a new topic, this post [ outlines the ways racism manifests itself in fandom and fan works ](https://sleepynegress.tumblr.com/post/633090104698798080/reasons-why-fans-of-color-leavedont-interact). And I’ve seen just about everyone of these applied to Maria DeLuca within the Roswell, New Mexico fandom. The ones I’ve seen so many times I’ve stopped counting:

    * “Characters of color being used as scapegoats/bashed/plot devices 


  * **Backlash against characters of color if they do anything other than be a white character’s side kick/best friend**


  * Being told that they should be happy they were even included when they call out the above people


  * **White fans crying about persecution/exclusion because their fav character/trope/kink/ship isn’t loved by all**


    * Everyone rushing to a white fans defense after a well deserved call out while the fan of color receives hate


  * **(re)writing characters of color as abusive and/or violent to infantilize white characters**


    * **Measuring characters of colour by impossible standards that are almost never applied to white characters.** If they’re “nice” they’re boring and bland, if they’re “mean” their faults and mistakes will be brought up every single time they show up. It’s almost like they can never win.


  * **Any kind of mistake or flaw renders a black character unredeemably awful and thereby justifies their erasure from fandom centering” source:[sleepynegress](https://sleepynegress.tumblr.com/post/633090104698798080/reasons-why-fans-of-color-leavedont-interact)**



The highlighted scenarios are so standard in RNM do I even need to talk about them? 

Yes. Yes, we certainly do. Because these issues all feed into creating an already turbulent environment that 2.06 acted as a filter for, and it played an important part in how many fans reacted to the Airstream scene. 

**Race - Predatorship**

One of the most egregious and noticeable elements of some reactions to 2.06 was the language used to describe Maria’s role in what happened. There was a lot of dogwhistle language. Maria was described in negative terms, more than once she was described as the aggressor in the events that happened. Not only does this fall into racist tropes around the portrayal of Black characters as brutes, it also feeds into the infantilization of Alex as a character. 

Because in order for Maria to fulfill the role of predator, Alex needs to fit the role of helpless prey and this is done by removing his agency and infantilizing him in a number of ways - be that by using his physical disability (he was often characterised as being “trapped” in the Airstream), incapable of giving consent (due to trauma), and his ability to define and explore his sexuality removed (any intimate contact with a woman somehow cancelling his “gayness”).

(And all of the above completely erases the bisexual man in the scenario, who in much discussion is completely left out and ignored).

**Misogynoir**

_“how do i properly articulate that the problem isn’t people shipping two white men once it’s about the TREND of people shipping two white men (or women) instead of the canon interracial & or poc/poc ship and defending it with the same identical arguments for why they just don’t vibe with it or don’t like it or whatever. “ _ source: [ muslimyennefer ](https://muslimyennefer.tumblr.com/post/640048245538750464/how-do-i-properly-articulate-that-the-problem)

Before the episode, the character of Maria DeLuca had received an unfortunately standard amount of fandom misogynoir for a Black, woman character. This increased once Miluca became canon and she committed the ultimate fandom sin of “getting in between” the RNM juggernaut ship of Malex. 

Maria’s biggest sin in the eyes of some Alex fans is that she “broke the best friend code” by not giving Michael up once she found out Alex was interested in him. I always thought it was a very high school take on what happened but I’ve learnt since then that it’s probably worse - it’s a variation of the “Mammy” construct - where Black women are expected to put aside their wants and needs to make friends and family happy. 

Another aspect from the above list seen in RNM fandom was the vilification of Maria connected to the infantilization of Alex (gay/disabled). 

It exploded exponentially in terms of both volume and vitriol after 2.06 and continues to this day. 

To be honest, I haven’t really done this part of the discussion justice. I’m just not qualified to do so. If anyone would like to add to this aspect, please feel free to reblog with your comments attached. 

**Ethical Non-monogamy**

Much discussion around the threesome is about consent, but a lot of it also seems to be about the fact that it’s a threesome. This was for a variety of reasons.

For some people, it just freaked them out. It was just something they weren’t used to seeing and it really challenged what they considered an acceptable relationship configuration. Even queer people. Discussion around this aspect of the scene brought up a lot of biphobic commentary around how any depiction of non-monogamy feeds into biphobic stereotypes (which is a pretty biphobic comment itself) and generally promoted the idea that there are only certain ways to be a “good” bisexual and nothing in this scene was it.

And finally, considering all of the previous issues raised, was one of the main objections to the threesome really the fact that Alex has a threesome with a woman that bothers people, or are people upset that it was with Maria?

Some polyamorous people (including myself) were disappointed that rather than use this as an opportunity to explore an ongoing, ethical polyam relationship, the show chose to go the threesome route. However, I think this is tempered by the fact that the show is full of examples of our adult characters in the show enjoying casual sex, so it wasn’t necessarily treating the polyam ship any different than the heteronormative ones. 

**Malex vs Miluca vs Candy**

And on top of all of the above, the threesome scene pretty much pitted the biggest ship from RNM against one of the biggest ships from the OG tv show, Michael and Maria (Candy in the OG and Miluca in RNM). Tensions were already high and into was dropped the idea of a third ship that combined all three characters - Malexa (Milexa). 

In a surprise to no one, this third ship was pretty much immediately attacked by the other two. With Miluca fans catching a lot of racist, misogynistic collateral damage. And polyam fans being run over by some fans of the bigger ships, and by people who just had a problem or were very uncomfortable with any depiction of consensual non-monogamy (be it a threesome hookup or the potential of a long-term polyam relationship). 

**Conclusion**

I’m in a different time zone to most of the fandom. So when the show is airing, I go into a social media lockdown for about 6 hours from between when the show airs, to when I can watch it. So I missed all the pre-airing drama of the incorrect transcript, the incorrectly captioned screen caps but what I didn’t miss was the implosion in full force and building when I jumped onto Tumblr immediately after watching the show.

I read a few posts and then basically cut myself off from fandom for a solid week.

I knew from what had been happening in the fandom over the previous 18 months meant that the episode would be divisive, but I just underestimated the vitriol that would be involved. 

As a polyam person, we’d been thrown the smallest crumbs with Malexa but even those crumbs were taken away to leave us starving again for the smallest vision of ourselves on screen.

As a bi person I had to watch fans queer and straight trot out the same old, tired biphobic discourse, with a desert of not so subtle racism, homophobia and ablism. 

What we ended up with was a split fandom, with the flames continuing to be fanned by a very small but dedicated group of people who seem to relish in the chaos they cause. Their divisiveness and hypocrisy continues, but hopefully their numbers and influence will fade, giving the majority of people the chance to enjoy the show and the creations inspired by it.

That’s it. There isn’t really a point to this other than to get my thoughts on a page. I’d love to hear what other people say. I would REALLY like to hear from people who can add more contributions to issues which I could only touch on briefly - the issues of fandom racism and ableism come to mind. I love a reblog with lengthy additions (@ me so I don’t miss them!!)

EDIT (27 Mar 2021): Another 2.06 inspired meta you might like to read - [Just My Thoughts](https://archiveofourown.org/works/30183354) by [Limestone_and_Hemlock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Limestone_and_Hemlock/pseuds/Limestone_and_Hemlock)


End file.
